Misleading graph because it includes social security which has its own funding source, so it shouldn't be included as govt spending. Same for medicare, which has its own dedicated tax. The fact that medicare is going to be insolvent in the next 20 years is not relevant now.

Without these entitlement programs, Defense spending is growing compared to the other discretionary spending (programs funded by general govt revenues.)

also, where is the black funding for CIA NSA etc included in this graph? And a correction, I should have said "Defense spending is probably growing or at least stable compared to other discretionary spending." Does this graph include the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The cost of these two wars dwarfs all other funding except for HHS, I would guess.

A third major trend is the growth of the blue "treasury" expenditures -- interest payments on past deficits. The major reason we cannot live within our means today is because we didn't live within our means in the past.

Here's an interesting resource -- note that in one of the dropdowns you can specify "%gdp" and you can switch to line graphs from bar graphs. Date range can be adjusted and all manner of fine tuning is possible.

I can't help but notice (at the top of the graph) that there was a recent jump in the percentage of federal spending going to allowances. This is disheartening; speaking for myself I have held my son's allowance steady in spite of his incessant and greedy demands for more, more, more!

The offical budgets of the Bush years did not include military spending for Iraq and Afghanistan and other similar things. If this graph is based on official budget figures, then it is as misleading as Bush was.